The aircraft arriving here from Calicut, would take off at 1930 hrs to Kuwait. About 85 Sharjah and Kuwait bound passengers have already booked their tickets and are set to fly in the inaugural flight.

At present there are flight services from the Mangalore to Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Doha, Bahrain and Muscat.

Meanwhile, the Ministry has issued a notification enabling Bajpe airport of the Airports Authority of India to handle cargo operations which would be a first step in realizing the long standing dream.

The Director of the airport Mr Vasudeva said that soon after the Gazette notification, two Duty-free shops would be set up within a week, to enable commuters to buy imported goods such as liquor, tobacco, perfume, cosmetics, camera, watches, soft drinks, food products, pens and toys from the shops. With the commencement of the cargo operations the revenue of the airport is expected to improve , besides benefiting exporters and importers of the region and northern parts of Kerala.

The notification, issued by Chief Commissioner of Customs, Karnataka, had declared Surathkal and Gurupura hoblies, in which the airport is located, as 'to be a warehousing station', which would allow the department to issue licenses for setting up private and public warehouses in these hobli limits. The Mangalore Customs Commissionerate had issued license to Flamingo Duty Free Shop Private Ltd. on July 11 to open duty-free shops at the airport, he added.